Powderfinger

0:03Alright, so Australian culture, a little different than Canadian North American culture. We are big, influenced in rap music now. You're still playing the rock and roll. Is rap even around down there? It is. I mean, we certainly receive whatever's coming out of America or the UK. So there's lots of hip hop, you know, R&B stuff. I mean, rock is still pretty big in Australia because it's always, we've always had a pub rock kind of history, you know, bands like Midnight Oil and I don't know if you would have heard of them actually. Just reading from your bio and stuff like that. So it's always been in Australia, you know, dirty rock and roll venue like this where...

0:49Yeah, that's a good point. We do get whatever is coming out of the rest of the world. Does it influence your music at all? You're just rubbish. No, I mean, it's kind of being a musician. You have to kind of listen to it at least because it's important to just hear what's going on and you can learn stuff from the production or whatever bit you want to take from those songs. It may be it's not out personally, personally our favourite stuff. Yeah, cool. Culture itself is completely different. When you come here to Canada, do you even play the States at all? We haven't for about two years. We've been there a few times. Maybe later this year. Yeah, the new albums are being released down there. I know it's getting huge up here in Canada.

1:36Yeah, it's being worked on at the moment I think. We recently left Universal Records and so we're shopping around for a new deal or whatever. Cool. New record, is there any work? Well, this has been out for a little while now, the Volter Street in Australia. Yeah, four singles are already out there now. We're working on the first one up here. Yeah, just the album came out April 13th or something like that up here. Is that hard? Like to come back and talk about a record that you've just exhausted about a year ago in Australia? No, not really. It's just kind of what you have to do. Yeah, it's part of the job. It is. There's elements of what we do that are fun, mostly elements of fun and there's other things that you just have to do, which still can be fun. Yeah, why is that the album, like my happiness got big up here.

2:21So obviously guys are well known. Why did you, well, maybe it's your decision, maybe it's the record companies I'm not quite sure. Why was Volter Street released about a year ago in Australia, but not up here? It's, I don't know. Just the way it's done? Yeah, it's just, well, it's the way it's done from Australia because we always tend to deal with home first. So we'll, I mean, you know, a lot of the R&B artists will say, you know, Jennifer Lopez, for instance, she'll release worldwide. There's many bands that release worldwide at once and they can afford to do that and they can, they can jump on their Learjet whenever they need to. And, you know, so for us, we just, we just like to deal with this bit and then this bit and this bit. Cool. It makes them more comfortable for us.

3:07Fair enough and you have to do things at a time. Yeah. Cool. All right. Powder Fingered Neil Young's song is from Canada. Does he know that you guys are around? I think so. Yeah, we met him briefly at a Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Oh, really? Two years ago, he was playing. We were both playing there and we knew one of his guitar techs and he sort of organised for us to come, you know, stand side of stage and watch a show and briefly met him. Yeah, it was awesome. That's awesome. It's most of us. We nearly had. Nearly young fans. I was listening to you guys on FM 96 a couple of minutes ago. It's just the same stuff over and over. Do you ever get bored of doing this? Or do you just wish you could just go out and play music every single day?

3:53You need a break from that too. Yeah. So you only really get bored when you get tired. Yeah. And most of us are pretty tired at the moment because we came straight from Europe to here and then just started getting in. We've got a day off tomorrow, which is great. It's our first day off in a week or whatever. It's only when you get tired that you sort of go, oh, fuck. I don't know if we could say that, but sure why not give it a try. It's made two four weekend up here. Do you guys have any idea of that, isn't it? No. It's our big party weekend. It's one of the guys at Barney's. Is it Barney's? Yeah. Yeah, he was talking. Yeah, it's our big party weekend. Do you guys have any party plans for this weekend? Up in Canada? Just kind of. I don't know. We've got tomorrow off.

4:40Yeah. So we'll do something tomorrow and tomorrow night. What should we do? Where are you guys going to be? Here. In London. Yeah. I've known him. I've from London. I like how it works. It's in pretty cool places. We'll find something to do tomorrow. Cool. Yeah, and then we're off. Then you're off to where? Oh, West. Yeah, we're heading through Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg to Vancouver. Peterborough? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. So you have a DVD coming out as well. Yep. What's going to be on the DVD? We recorded a couple of shows. We didn't Sydney on our biggest Australian tour for the album. We've never done a DVD, so we just decided to put it out and see what happens. Yeah. It's pretty good. I mean, we put a lot of time and effort into making the whole show.

5:27I mean, it's playing in front of 12,000 people each night. It looks pretty awesome. Yeah. You've got to rush on stage with that many people. Yeah, it's pretty crazy, actually. What can you expect on the DVD music-wise? A bunch of new stuff? Or are you going to go back to all the records? Most, it's maybe eight songs from that, from Vulture Street, plus six or seven songs from past records. Cool. Is that going to be released up in Canada or is that just strictly off stream? Not sure, actually. I'm not sure. I know Silver Chair likes to just release it up. We always have to order it up. Yeah. It kind of depends on the demand for it, I guess. We'll see how this album does here and then- Well, I was doing Fennon Baby on my Minds on the Radio Nonsense. It seems pretty good, actually. Yeah, that's great too.

6:13Yeah. How do you break internationally? You get huge in Australia. How do you decide, all right, now is the time we're going to go out and we're going to try and go worldwide? I think you try to do it every album. Yeah. And there's two ways of doing it. There's- have a song that gets picked up by the radio and gets thrashed and crosses over into all the countries and whatever. Or you put your album out and you just drive around as much as you can and you're going to play as much as you can and play whatever little gigs you can find. Which is a longer road, but it's kind of got its rewards as well because people come and see you because they really like you and they kind of respect what you do and they genuinely love you, not just for today, but they'll love you tomorrow as well.

7:00They'll like what you do tomorrow as well. Okay. And that's how we've had to do things. Yeah. It's good. It's tiring at times, but it's good. Yeah, you love what you do? Yeah, yeah. You decided to mix it. I was reading the booklet and you mixed it in Atlanta. Yeah. Not in Australia. Yeah. Why is that? Well, the guy who produced it, Nick D'Dia, he works usually for Brendan O'Brien, who's done raging as machine, chili peppers and pearl jam and all this stuff. So he spoke to Brendan and said, you know, do you want to mix this and blah blah blah and Brendan went, yeah, that's great. But I can only do it here. And so we went, okay, well, we'll come over to you. And yeah. So you guys actually went over.

7:46I was going to say, yeah. Three of us went over and just didn't really do anything. We just had the going, oh, yeah, sounds good. Sounds great. All right. I changed. Well, nothing. I guess. Okay. Yeah. You got a side project drag. Yeah. Yeah. Why do you feel the need to do a side project? Well, one thing with being in a successful band, you know, have a hobby say that. Oh, it does. Yeah, sure. A hobby say that. You know, it's a big beast, but it's a slow moving beast as well. So, I mean, I kind of write a lot of songs and I write a lot of music. You know, a lot of it goes into what's been patented, how to finger. But some of it is just doesn't really suit how to finger it. I mean, my personal taste is a bit more on the lighter side of music.

8:34So. Could you produce guitar style stuff? Yeah. Yeah. A bit of electric with acoustic. So I get to do that in a side project drag, for instance. So it's a little malware band and stuff like that. Yeah. Can you find the music up here or is it just Australia? You can import it, I think. Yeah. Cool. We'll try it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. I heard Australians when you meet them in a bar, they're not really star struck like Americans. They're not really background Canadians. Do you guys have like any crazy hardcore fans down there? There's a few, but there's not that many people. Most of all people are just, you know, they just relax. They come up to you and they're not shy and coming up and going, hey, you know, I love your album and you know, cool. I'll see you later and that's all it is.

9:19That's all it is. That's all I want. That must be the story. Yeah, it's really good. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. I mean, it's good. I mean, there's a couple of, you meet a couple of strange people who, who come up to you and sort of like, can you sign this for me? And they pull out a huge folder with all the newspaper clippings and cutouts and stuffy. Oh, a little watch. What am I kidding myself into here? Sorry. Wow. Is it true that there are no tour buses in Australia? No, we can't have them. Why is it? Because it's just part of the road regulations. You need to have seat belts. Yeah. And the roads also are not great. I mean, they're decent, of course. It's been bought up many times, believe me, that the local governments might change.

10:06Wow. So what's it like up here? Do you guys have a tour bus up here? We usually do. We don't, in this part of Canada, on this trip that we usually do. It's good fun though. It's kind of a sanctuary that's who it was after. Well, it sounds sad in a way, but it is because you can go there. It's usually straight outside the venue, so you don't have to get a taxi anyway. You don't have to do what he's just walking and you know, you can have a friend up the back of the bus. It's nice. It's just a big rock and roll party bus for you. Sometime, yeah. Cool. Yeah, yeah. All the songcrest are the powder finger. You say you read a lot of the songs and a lot of the music, but I think it's great that you guys credit everybody. So everyone would say they're right. Oh, we always do because, you know, whether I bring a song in or Bernie brings a song in, we still all get our hands around it.

10:51Yeah. It's cool because a lot of us don't do that. Yeah. Well, it's true. I mean, none of us sort of really go around claiming, oh, that's my song, my song because we all respect each other enough to appreciate that. Well, it wouldn't be what you hear without everyone else. I never would have said something. Exactly. Yeah. That's cool. So it's not like, I don't want to dis-pom the car any because he's my hero, but I mean, he used to boss the other Beatles. Yeah. Yeah. So this is what the part. So you guys don't do that. Everyone just kind of writes their own thing. No, no. I mean, you know, occasionally when you've got an idea, you've got an idea and you know, can you try that? Or can you, let's try this and you know. Kind of bouncing around. Not to the McCartney degree. No. I look, I love the guy too. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Um, downloading the music. It's just, it's gotten huge.

11:36How do you guys feel about it? Do you think it's hurt you or harmed you more or helped? Uh, it's, it's pretty hard. I mean, to a band that's signed to a big label, it's pretty hard because, um, you kind of really rely on CD. CD sales to pay your debt back and you know, that sort of thing. But for bands that aren't really known, it's a great medium for, you know, to have people stumble across your music or, yeah. I mean, I think there just needs to be a kind of a halfway point where you can download music, but you just pay a dollar for it. Yeah, pretty good. It's a fair way to do it because, you know, people, bands and artists and musicians, they, you work hard to sort of. To write that, to put that song together and you know, it's, it takes hours and hours and days and days.

12:26And you know, it's, it's what you hope to do for a living so that you don't have to chuck it away and start working in the supermarket. So it's just, it's just a bit of respect to at least, you know, offer a dollar for a song or whatever the, whatever it works out to be. Yeah. Now you say a dollar song, but I mean, you got this is a different CD because I've never seen any case like this. I mean, I think I've never seen a little press button, everything, but like a lot of work goes into just the artwork and the booklet and all that stuff. But I mean, with the dollar songs, you don't get that anymore. Yeah. Well, that's the thing you kind of miss out on. I mean, there was a real downstep taken when we went from vinyl to CD because, I mean, you know, we always, always still have buying vinyl with a big artwork. You open it up and go, oh, great. I mean, it's a little. Listen to records and experience too.

13:11It's not like a CD, which is unfortunate. Like you just put the record down and just listen to it. It's a real process involved, you know, CDs, you stack his play with six to 20 CDs and just let him go. That's too bad. Anyway, so you hold it for a second single in Canada. What's, what are you guys going to do about it? I think it's going to be sunset. Yeah, that was really South Australia, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Every week on the show, we do something called 20 questions. Just one more answer is 20 quick questions. Ready? All right. Favorite song to play live. On my mind. Favorite cover to play? Probably probably the one we're doing at the moment, which is running down a dream. Tom Petty song. Cool. Yeah. Favorite album of all time. It could be Beatles revolver.

14:00I'll just, I'll say that. Yeah. What's your favorite track on the album? Uh, no. Fuck. That's how I just, I love that album. Too many songs. All right. Cool. Favorite movie? Favorite movie would probably be the Matrix at the moment. Oh, yeah? Yeah. These are quick answers, mind you. If I thought about it, I'd probably think back. Favorite drink? Um, banana smoothie. Letting her with cartney. Oh, shit. Different moments, but I'd probably go in the cartney. Yes, yeah. Clapton or Hendrix? Hendrix. Best bar in the entire world. Oh, best bar in the entire world. Probably the RE, which is an outdoor bar in Brisbane, Australia.

14:48Yeah. Alcohol or marijuana? Marijuana. Song that you've written that you're most proud of. Um, it's a song that no one's heard. Uh, all right. What's it called? It's a new song. It's, um, it hasn't been titled yet, but it's just, it's just got a good sense of it. I know that they're really like it. I'm not a dragon powder finger. Who's you? That's a tough one. I'm going to have to say patter finger. All right. It did have different reasons, I guess. Fair enough. One word answer, George W. Bush. Why? One pitch. Favorite city to play? Um, Amsterdam. Downloading good or bad?

15:33One pick? It's getting better. I get good or bad, you know halfway between. Oh, thanks. Thanks. Alright, if you could time travel, what time would you go to? I'd probably skip forward. About 50 years. Just to see whether we learned from any of our mistakes. See if you guys are the next Beatles. Yeah, see how big we are. If you could learn any instrument, what would it be? A cello. An Australian who deserves more recognition worldwide than he already has. Than any Australian that deserves more recognition that we don't know about over here. Oh, um, Peter Garrett.

16:21Maybe he's the lead singer of Midnite Oil. He was split up, but he's a real environmentalist and activist in that area. Cool. What is your happiness? Surfing. Yeah, it's cool. I don't know. We just did that one. Favorite Canadian band? Well, Neil Young. What are the most? Neil Young Young. Crazy holes? What's in your CD player right now? Some of my new demos. Oh yeah. Because I'm working on a drag album. Alright, nice. One-word answer powder finger. Fun. Fun. Cool, man. That's it.